Top 15 Companies for Working Moms
Today the majority of moms return to the workforce within six months of giving birth, compared to 14 percent in the early 1960s. Fortunately, some employers are lightening the load of working motherhood with benefits and services from onsite child care and dry cleaning to lactation counseling and parenting courses. Here’s to 15 companies that make it easier for mothers to put in a good day’s work.
Arnold Worldwide
The New York advertising age ncy offers flextime, telecommuting, child care and parental leave, and several onsite convenience and wellness programs to keep the creativity flowing to its ad campaigns.
UBS, a global financial services firm, backs up its commitment to diversity with accommodating work arrangements, flexible and domestic partner benefits, work-life assistance programs, health and fitness initiatives, child care and even concierge services. Moreover, its women’s networks promote women’s advancement through networking, mentorship and leadership opportunities.
Boston Consulting Group’s strong minority outreach, top-notch health insurance (including $5 co-pays and 100 percent fertility treatment coverage) set it apart. Not to mention job-sharing programs, compressed workweeks, telecommuting and a nondiscrimination policy. It was among the first consulting firms to hire a woman consultant, elect a female partner and tap a woman to lead a large office.
The family-owned Rochester, New York, grocery store chain charms its mostly female workers with 10 percent off gift cards, free yoga classes, job sharing programs, compressed workweeks and telecommuting. A third of employees take part in the annual Eat Well Live Well Challenge that promotes health and fitness education—and action. The store also earns top marks for its ethical business practices, including it s ban on cigarette sales.
At the Washington, D.C.-based law firm, $5,000 toward adoption costs, six-week paid leave for family health crises and a $30,000 lifetime benefit for fertility treatments are the laws of the land. Attorneys get 18 weeks of paid maternity leave. After giving birth, many moms can reduce working hours, adopt flex schedules and telecommute without detouring off the partnership track or losing benefits. Plus there’s onsite child care at the headquarters and priority access at offsite daycare facilities near its branches.
The No. 1 online footwear retailer pays 100 percent of health and dental benefits and serves free food daily in the cafeteria and vending machines. And to maintain a tight-knit, supportive employee base, it offers trainees $2,000 to quit if they aren’t enamored with the company culture. Most choose a Zappos diploma over the cash. The shoe fits, and they wear it.
Women make up roughly 70 percent of the insurer’s workforce, and one in four employees takes advantage of its flextime program. The Columbus, Georgia-based company also has the state’s largest onsite child care facility, serving more than 600 children. It offers onsite personal development and life skills classes and lunch and learn sessions on topics like how to raise a strong-willed child.
Alston & Bird
The Atlanta firm became one of the first law firms to offer an onsite, full-service child care center when it opened The Children’s Campus. It joined a consortium center to serve staff in other locations and offers at-home child care options through another third party. The number of women attorneys jumped 45 percent from 215 in 2004 to 312 this year. The number of female partners rose even more, leaping 46 percent from 50 in 2004 to 73 in 2009. A fifth of the firm’s partners are now women.
It’s only fitting that a family entertainment company would promote its silver screen values in the workplace. With a game room, Wii competitions, movie wrap parties and summer carnivals, moms can work and play in the office and invite their families on campus. Flexible scheduling, job sharing and telecommuting options keep everyone from animators to accountants inspired.
This powerhouse professional services firm is forging beyond flexibility, child care, time-off and leaves to embrace “mass career customization,” where employees work with supervisors to navigate “an undulating journey of climbs, lateral moves and planned descents,” chief talent officer Cathy Benko says. So much for climbing the corporate ladder.
More than 20 years ago, IBM created the first national corporate child care initi- ative. To da te it’s committed more than $263 million to support a complete range of dependent care services to aid IBMers. Along the way, it’s advocated some unconventional wisdom, including mantras: “flexibility is a business imperative” and “presence does not equal performance.”
From a no-stress dress code to onsite dry cleaning, the Indianapolis pharmaceutical company makes workers’ lives easier. Mothers can take off the month before their baby’s due date, get paid six weeks after delivering, use the company’s hospital-grade electric breast pump in private nursing stations and place children in part- or full-time child development centers through kindergarten. Flextime, flexweek, part-time, job sharing and telecommuting options abound.
Outside the company, Kraft is known for brands ranging from A1 to Triscuit. Among the moms on staff, though, its benefit programs and resources win rave reviews. It reimburses employees up to $5,000 for each child they adopt and offers backup child care. Other perks include discounts on home computers, dependent daycare flexible spending accounts, paid time off, and concierge and referral services.
This global health care company goes the extra mile to support women. It provides free 24/7 lactation consulting, as well as confidential consultation on parenting, caregiving, education and more. Th ose who choose to adopt can get up to $10,000 of expenses reimbursed, along with up to two weeks paid time off for adoption-related legal, travel or bonding needs.
The international publisher of BusinessWeek, Standard & Poor’s and textbooks saw the writing on the wall and amped up its work-life programs and policies to serve working moms’ dynamic needs. The company offers a range of services from back-up child and elder care and paid leaves for new parents to adoption assistance and child care referral services and discounts.
–Maya Payne Smart
